Companies are alarmed to find out that their online advertising strategies and $219 billion annual media marketing spend (U.S.) are mostly ineffective at converting consumers.
A research study based on surveying 395 marketers in the U.S., UK, and Canada found that Facebook ads are largely ineffective. The fast-occurring changes in the digital landscape, as well as society’s shortened attention span, have been huge culprits. However, there are several other important reasons we have discovered as to why ads may be ineffective which are key to understand, so you can immediately start building a campaign that is more effective.
Personalized vs Broadcast Messaging
Advertisers tend to use broadcast messaging, as opposed to personalized messaging because it requires less effort and reaches a larger audience. However, broadcast messaging is most effective when delivering entertainment with broad appeal and general information to a large population where the business is not location based and has a broader geographical reach. Personalized messaging is a much more effective means of getting the attention of your audience, despite the larger effort to create more campaigns for smaller groups or individuals.
Align Your Messaging with Why People Really Use Social Media
Another major miscalculation of advertisers is the failure to understand the reasoning behind why people employ social media. The consequence of this, according to a recent survey done by Gallup, is U.S. consumers often tend to tune out advertisement content on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. 94% of social media users subscribe to these platforms to connect with friends and family, 29% to follow trends/find product reviews and information, and 20% to comment on latest trends/write product reviews. Marketers must bear in mind that consumers primarily seek to cultivate and maintain connections with people, not brand names or products. To maximize the full potential of advertisements, marketers have instead been concentrating on helping people to improve existing relationships and build new ones.
So let’s get into how you can best put your marketing budget to good use and create an effective advertising campaign on social media.
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Understand the cultures, hobbies, values, and beliefs of your targeted consumers. Do they value philanthropy? Social status? Connections?
- People often enjoy taking personality assessments and personalized surveys
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Make sure your company’s mission and product messaging align with your target audience’s values, rather than your own business needs as they so often do.
- Insert buzzwords that catch the attention of your intended demographic’s interest, i.e. highlight the word “charity” if your client base consists of socially aware individuals.
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Market your product and service as an identity symbol so your consumers can broadcast what they stand for through your product and help others to understand them as well.
- i.e. they drive a Tesla to demonstrate their concern for the environment.
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Create friend-to-friend advertisements
- Encourage consumers to share coupons and special offers with friends on social media to help them better social relationships.
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Find celebrity-sponsors
- Research shows that celebrity-sponsored tweets are more effective for smaller, unique brands rather than bigger established brands.People love expressing their association to their favorite celebrity if they have something in common.
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Offer a solution
- People don’t like being told what to do–especially not how they should spend their money. Brand your product as a choice they can make to help them express themselves as well as a solution to the problems that concern them.
SOURCES
St. Joseph’s University (2012, July 10). Research: Celeb-sponsored tweets don’t always pay. Retrieved from https://www.sju.edu/news-events/news/reserach-celebsponsored-tweets-dont-always-pay
Piskorski, M. J. (2011). Social Strategies that work. Harvard Business Review, 89(11), 166-122.
Yu-Qian Zhu, HounGee Chen. (2015). Social Media and Human Need Satisfaction: Implications for Social Media Marketing. Kelly School of Business, Indiana University. Business Horizons, 58, 335-345.
